


Complications (Stryker and Kage)

by Astroblaze



Series: Kage and Stryker [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Gen, Heartbeats, Hurt/Comfort, Medic in trouble, Medical Examination, Metahumans, Modern Fantasy, Role Reversal, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28724244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astroblaze/pseuds/Astroblaze
Summary: Stryker has just left Kage's home in good spirits, but the young doctor finds himself experiencing unexpected side-effects from an incident during the metahuman's examination.
Series: Kage and Stryker [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105733
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5
Collections: Medshots by Astroblaze





	1. Self-Assessment (Dr. Bronner)

As Stryker and his small band of allies disappeared into the surrounding wilderness, Kage shut the door, smiling to himself as he turned away. The smile faded, however, as he noticed the lingering ache through his chest and right shoulder from the earlier testing’s accidental shock. _‘That still hurts? I might be wise to give myself a once-over. Electricity is serious business.’_ Frowning, he checked his pulse on the side of his throat; it seemed regular, but the persistent soreness prevented that from allaying his concerns.

Massaging the ache out of the nape of his neck and right inner shoulder as best he could, he walked back down the hall into the clinic area of his home and stepped back into the exam room. Emmett hadn’t gotten to cleaning yet, he noticed as he flicked the overheads back on and noted the instrument-filled jar that remained in the sink. He was grateful, honestly, not to encounter his assistant at the moment—he didn’t want to worry the sweet-spirited young skicherman if it turned out that nothing was wrong.

 _‘I don’t often have to do this to myself,’_ he mused as he stepped to the coat rack and retrieved his stethoscope from the pocket of his labcoat. Laying the instrument around his neck on reflex, he crossed the room to seat himself in the wooden chair next to the analog scale. Leaning back into the chair and closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths to calm his anxious thoughts before lifting his hands to the buttons of his dress shirt. Once he’d undone the fastenings, he adjusted the fabric to lie fully open and detangled the stethoscope from its folds.

Fitting the arms of the instrument into his ears, he clasped the chestpiece in his palm as he lifted his undershirt to his collarbones, baring a chest much thinner and paler than the one he had just thoroughly examined, though Kage himself was far from scrawny from having to maintain his own property and stores. With his off-hand keeping his undershirt contained, he pressed the chill diaphragm just below the joining of right collarbone and sternum. The quick snapping of his aortic valve startled him at first, on edge as he was, but he quickly corralled his nerves to focus on the rhythm and sound of his heartbeat, tracking his pulse against his watch as he kept his breathing regular.

Pausing on each location longer than he normally would, he crossed his sternum to his pulmonic valve under his left collarbone, then proceeded downward to his tricuspid. He skipped over his apex to check his mitral valve, then backtracked to where he could feel his heart beating under his skin. Even under his careful scrutiny, his heart sounded completely normal, its rhythm as strong and even as ever. With a relieved sigh, he lifted the chestpiece from his skin.

“Kage?”

Startling up at the soft female voice, Kage looked over to find Kylie leaning through the ajar door to the exam room, round hazel eyes framed in loose strands of chocolate-auburn hair watching him worriedly.

“Are you okay?” Kylie pressed.

Kage smiled to her as he returned the instrument to his shoulders and stood, adjusting his undershirt and buttoning his shirt. “I seem to be. I just took a bit of a surprise shock almost directly to my chest and wanted to make sure nothing was set awry.”

“Anything I can help with?” the young woman asked as Kage crossed back to the coat rack and returned the stethoscope to his coat pocket. “Thank you, but I don’t believe so,” he assured her.

“How is Blaise doing?” he asked, changing the subject as he approached her.

Kylie smiled at the mention of her skicherman companion. “He’s fine. He’s still resting, but I think his fever’s gone down some since last I checked.”

“Well, I can always check again.” Turning back, Kage crossed the space to the sink in the corner to pluck the thermometer from the jar. Running the glass instrument under the cold faucet to rinse off the cleaning fluid, he dried it off and handed it to Kylie, who accepted it with a smile. “It’d be lovely if the darn thing would break already,” he remarked wryly, “but I’m contented with a decrease. Let’s go check on your friend, shall we?”


	2. Electric Peril (Stryker and Kage)

His clinic was rarely terribly active, so a brief check of Blaise’s condition and a chat with Emmett after catching the younger skicherman in the hall left Kage with little more to do than organize his client documentation. No one, including Kage himself, noticed him occasionally massaging his inner shoulder, still trying to work out the aching that plagued the deep tissues.

Normally an orderly person, Kage had little trouble sorting through the files stored in his desk. Most of his time was spent copying his notes from Stryker’s exam into a file on the metahuman, which he compiled just as he did every other client—the more common the file appeared, the more easily it would be overlooked if something came up. At least, he hoped that would be the case. Kage wasn’t accustomed to keeping secrets as much as he was simply not being noticed at all, living out in the thicket as he did.

Neatly sorting the completed patient profile and case history into a folder, he slipped the folder into the filing cabinet set beside his desk and started to stand. The room whirled around him, vision briefly graying out as strength and warmth seemed to drain from his form. Kage staggered and collapsed back into his chair, stunned by the sudden assault on his person. The snap of his head hitting the headrest, padded as it was, sent a shock of pain through his skull, and the doctor closed his eyes against the pounding behind his vision, leaning forward to prop his elbows on his desk as he held his face in his hands. The aching in his chest and arm had worsened to a bruise-like soreness occasionally struck through with biting pain, accompanied by an uncomfortable burning sensation in his right hand. It wasn’t until he tried to take a breath and was met by seeming inability that he started to feel truly alarmed, however.

His hand flew to his chest, pressing fingers seeking out the apex of his heart that suddenly felt so heavy and labored in its beat as his other hand searched for his carotid. Both found the same chilling conclusion: his pulse had markedly destabilized, fluttering and throbbing erratically under his fingers.

Gritting his teeth and bracing himself against the desk with shaking hands, Kage forced himself to his feet, knees threatening to give out with every step as he limped around the desk, clutching at the wooden frame until it carried him no farther and in a few stumbling strides he latched onto the door frame. Dragging himself out of the office, he limped down the hall, bracing himself heavily against the wall with a hand clutching his pounding chest.

Finally he stumbled into the exam room, barely managing to hit the lights as he caught the edge of the table for support. He managed just enough strength to tug the stethoscope from his coat pocket before collapsing back against the table, the edge of the mattress pressing into the small of his back as he threw the instrument over his shoulders. Trembling fingers barely managed to loosen the buttons of his shirt, and when the last finally gave way, he couldn’t get the remaining fabric out of the way fast enough.

How he managed to get the stethoscope into his ears only force of habit seemed to explain as he yanked up the hem of his undershirt and pressed the diaphragm into his chest, gasping at the biting chill of the metal head. His examination this time was driven by panicked agitation, along with mounting horror at the sound of his own heart seeming to trip and stumble over itself. Finally overcome by combined stresses, his knees buckled under him and he sank to the floor in a heap, collapsed against the side of the exam table as he continued to listen to the painfully irregular thudding of his own pulse.

Kage jumped as a slender figure dropped to her knees in front of him. Soft hands cupped his chin and lifted his head, drawing terrified blue eyes upward to meet panicked hazels, and the equally distressed yellows over her shoulder. He tugged one arm of the stethoscope out of his ears just in time to hear Kylie’s panicked voice over the pounding in his chest.

“Kage, what’s the matter?” The young woman’s voice was easily an octave higher than usual, driven by the pain and despair clear in his features.

“I was wrong,” Kage gasped. “I was very very wrong.” He shuddered as his heart gave out a hard premature thump of a beat, a whimpering groan escaping gritted teeth. “I’m not okay. That shock has sent my heart into a- ngh! -very severe arrhythmia. I am in a lot of pain.”

Kylie pushed his hand and the clutched chestpiece away from his apex to replace it with her own, and Kage watched the deep worry in her eyes turn to horror as she felt his pulse.

“Oh my God... Oh my God...” Her eyes darted to his, bright with distress. “What do we do, Kage? This sort of thing kills people!”

“I know,” the doctor responded weakly, closing his eyes to escape the fear in hers.

“And we’re out in the middle of nowhere!” Kylie’s hands flashed to his jawline. “Do you have anything to fix this? _Anything?_ ”

Kage shook his head. “I- No, I- I don’t think so, I’ve never been equipped for anything this severe- I-” How much time had passed since the initial shock? A half-hour, maybe? Less? It had progressed so quickly. Stryker and his people had left his home mere minutes prior-

The electrokinetic is minutes away.

Kage’s eyes snapped open and his hand seized Kylie’s wrist with sudden urgency. “Call Stryker. Call him back.”

Kylie startled backward, confusion mingling with her distress. “Stryker?”

Kage squeezed his eyes shut, waving his hand in an attempt to coordinate his thought process. “Yeah, electricity, that’s- it’s- it’s his whole thing, he’s a natural at this-”

Kylie’s eyes widened in understanding. “Do you have his number?”

“No—” the weeks prior to Stryker’s appointment flashed back to him— “but I have Anva’s.” A trembling hand pulled his phone from his trouser pocket. “Here, she’ll be in my contacts.”

Taking it from his hand, Kylie flipped it open and opened calling, relief flashing across her features as a quick search of his contacts found one named accordingly. Immediately sending the call through, she pressed the phone to her ear as she twisted to sit beside Kage against the exam table, her free arm wrapping around his shoulders to hold the trembling young man close. Awkwardly working around his leg brace to sit at Kage’s other side, Emmett gently pried the stethoscope from his hands and put it on himself, pressing the diaphragm to Kage’s chest as his free hand ran clawed fingers comfortingly through his hair.

* * *

The present collection of the militia’s leaders chatted lightly among themselves as the whole band made its way back toward the encampments. Anva, in particular, was glad to see Stryker acting more like his old, upbeat self, after the weeks of stress and tension palpable about his person.

Fenris was in the middle of a tale about something he had spotted while running reconnaissance when her phone buzzed in the pocket of her dress.

Stryker quirked an eyebrow at her perplexed frown. “What is it?”

“My phone is ringing,” she commented, retrieving the device from her pocket to scan its screen. “It’s from Kage,” she noted, flipping it open and lifting it to her ear. “Yes? This is Anva.”

_“Oh thank God- Kage needs Stryker back here right now.”_

Anva’s frown deepened at the panic clear in the unfamiliar voice. “Who is this? What’s the matter, dear?”

 _“Oh, my name is Kylie,”_ she responded hastily. _”You didn’t meet me, but I’ve been staying with Kage while my friend has been recovering from illness.”_

“Alright, Kylie, I believe you. And what-”

 _“Something’s gone horribly wrong.”_ Kylie barely seemed even to register Anva’s response. _“Kage’s heart rhythm has gone all out of sorts and he’s in a lot of pain and he thinks Stryker might be able to help- oh, please come!”_

Even Anva’s white metallic complexion could pale. Stryker leaned in, the furrow in his brow deepening at her mounting alarm. “What happened?”

“It’s going to be alright, dear,” Anva quickly reassured Kylie, “we’re on our way.” Ending the call, she turned to Stryker. “It seems the doctor himself has become suddenly ill and is requesting your help.”

Stryker straightened in surprise. “ _My_ help?”

“His condition is severe.” Glancing over at the Harbinger’s thin voice, both found the robed hyheil wearing a look of grim determination, dull green eyes piercing through Stryker as she slipped her psychic suppressor back over her ear. “His heart is failing. There’s no guarantee you can save him, but if you don’t go, the likelihood that this kills him is very high, and increasing by the minute.”

The oracle’s input was plenty to snap the electrokinetic into action. “Anva, Fenris, with me,” he ordered with a quick gesture to each. “We’ll move faster alone. The rest of you return to camp.”

As Dominic took command of the remaining group, Stryker turned and bolted back the way they’d come, cylirt and shifter close on his heels.

* * *

“They’re on their way,” Kylie sighed, closing Kage’s phone and slipping it in the pocket of her jeans. Emmett pulled away from Kage’s chest as Kylie stood, removing the stethoscope from his ears and laying it around his own shoulders before getting to his feet. Working together though Emmett’s limp made him not quite as helpful as he desired, the pair gently guided Kage wincing to his feet, arms under his shoulders to support him as they made their way carefully out of the exam room and down the hall into the living area. Kage sagged into the couch as Kylie and Emmett eased him into it, head falling back onto the cushions, eyes closed and breathing labored, as his hand found his chest again.

Barely it seemed had they gotten Kage comfortable when a knock sounded from the front door. Emmett helped Kage back to his feet, Kage clutching at his thin shoulders with what little strength he had left, while Kylie stepped ahead into the front hall. Stryker stood on the front porch when she opened the door, Anva and an individual who she didn’t recognize, olive-skinned with dark mottled hair and orange eyes, standing behind him.

Stryker’s concern turned quickly to alarm as he stepped in and spotted Kage held upright in Emmett’s grasp. “What happened?”

“Well,” Kage panted, “it would seem your earlier discharge had a much more drastic effect on me than I realized.” His nervous half-smile morphed into a low whine as his heart skipped hard, his hand tightening on his chest.

His knees chose that moment to give out again, leaving Emmett struggling to brace his weight. Kylie started toward him with arms outstretched, but Stryker was faster. Strong hands easily took the young doctor from his assistant’s arms, calloused fingers rough against Kage’s skin but Stryker’s touch itself gentle as the metahuman slipped a hand under his shirt to seal against his side. His eyes unfocused slightly as he turned his attention to the rhythm of Kage’s bioelectricity, the furrow in his brow deepening as he sensed just how unstable his pulse had gotten.

“Is there anything you can do to get his heart rhythm back to normal?” Kylie pleaded.

Stryker blinked back to the present, brown eyes darting between the three of them with a disconcertingly similar air of panic. “I mean, I can try something, maybe? I’m not the professional here.”

“No,” Kage weakly spoke up from where he’d rested his head against Stryker’s chest, “but... you’ve already shown you have an innate skill for reading and adjusting electric patterns, just by your nature.”

Stryker bit his lip. “True, but I don’t know what to _do,_ specifically. This could go horribly wrong very easily and I don’t want to hurt you.”

Kage lifted his head to meet Stryker’s gaze, some of his confidence seeming returned with help within reach. “There’s a procedure: cardioversion. I’ve read about it. It’s essentially a less-energetic defibrillation—a strong shock run directly through the heart to reset the natural rhythm.” Stryker lifted his head in recognition. “It’s usually performed in a hospital, by a machine, and not while the patient is... awake...” he averted his gaze again, fear flickering through his eyes at that admission— “but I don’t keep sedatives and I’m the only one with a trained eye on my condition here.”

Stryker studied his features. “You’re sure about this? I know it’s going to hurt.”

Kage couldn’t help a bark of nervous laughter at the question. “I have no equipment to deal with this sort of condition and the nearest hospital is too far from here to be useful. I don’t really have a choice.”

The metahuman’s jaw clenched, worried hesitation clear on his face, but remembering the Harbinger’s warnings, he sighed, closing his eyes. “Alright, I’ll see what I can pull off.”

“C’mon, you’ll want to sit down for this.” Guiding Kage back into the living room as the other four trailed behind, Stryker carefully lowered him to sit on the couch. Again Kage nearly collapsed into the cushions, struggling to relax through the pain that had consumed his senses. As he worked to regulate his breathing as much as his throbbing heart would allow, Stryker adjusted his unbuttoned shirt to lie fully open and lifted his undershirt to bare his heaving chest.

“Just... try to relax?” Stryker suggested uncertainly as he positioned his hands on Kage’s chest and side. “This shouldn’t take long—at least I hope to God it doesn’t.” Kage nodded tightly. “Keep your distance, guys,” Stryker warned the others over his shoulder, then closed his eyes and focused back into the rhythm of Kage’s heart.

Finally opening his eyes, Kage looked down to watch familiar veins of energy light up along Stryker’s forearms. The lightning running through Stryker’s veins now was noticeably more intense than for his earlier demonstration, glowing brightly enough to approach white with thinner veins channeling into his fingers. He even glimpsed microscopic sparks of lightning arcing across the surface of Stryker’s skin, both ejected and swiftly recaptured by the charges building in his arms. Feeling his heart start to race even through its erratic throbbing pulse as he began to grasp what was about to happen, he closed his eyes and renewed his efforts to breathe and settle himself.

Feeling the shift, Stryker opened his eyes and looked to Kage. “Are you ready?”

Kage again gave a terse nod. “As ready as I’m going to be.”

Stryker nodded and sighed. “Okay, here goes. Christ, I hate doing this,” he muttered, mostly to himself, as electricity briefly crackled through his eyes. His fingers involuntarily tightened on Kage’s torso as he funneled the full charge he had been building down into his hands, gathered himself, and released.

Kage’s back arched, a strangled yelp forced through clenched teeth as he felt the currents blast twisting through his heart, flooding his chest with white-hot piercing pain. His heart jumped at the impact and began to race, forced into overdrive by the energy pouring through it. His hands balled into fists, knuckles turning white and nails digging into his palms as his arms trembled from tension.

And then as quickly as it had started, it was over. Kage sagged forward, clutching Stryker’s shoulders for support as he gasped for breath and his heart throbbed and seized in his chest. The electrokinetic’s hands had returned to cradling him, one lifting to support his head.

“Are you okay?” The question was simple enough but toned by the metahuman’s fear that he had only made matters worse.

“I... H-Hang on.” Shaking hands fumbled for the stethoscope he remembered laying around his shoulders, only for smaller, clawed hands to catch his and press the instrument into his grasp. Clumsily fitting the tips into his ears, he started to fall back into the couch before Stryker caught him by the arms and guided him gently into the cushions. His heart was still pounding from the strain of the shock when he pressed the diaphragm to his chest, but as he listened, its rate gradually began to decrease.

The process seemed to take an age but finally his heart had settled back into a resting rhythm—and one that held steady.

Releasing a relieved sigh, Kage dropped the stethoscope to his neck. “I think it worked.”

Tension drained from Stryker’s shoulders as he slumped with a heavy sigh, his hold on Kage’s arms finally loosening. Though visibly weary from the stress of the ordeal, the smile he lifted to Kage held only relief and gratitude.

As Stryker stood and stepped back, Kage looked about his state and sighed, adjusting his shirt. “Now I’m going to go lie down. I need to rest. That was a lot.”

Stryker nodded. “Yeah. Be careful.”

Kylie and Emmett quickly stepped forward as Kage moved to stand, Kylie and Stryker working together to support him as he laid his arms around their shoulders and limped down the hall between them.

After passing a couple more doors and entrances, the group stepped into his simply furnished bedroom, tucked away in the back of his home. Releasing his hold on the pair’s shoulders, Kage eased himself from their grasp to sit on the edge of the bed, laying the stethoscope and his glasses on the side table before shrugging off his dress shirt. Kylie took the article from him, neatly folding it and laying it on his dresser, as Stryker guided him to lie down with an arm under his shoulders and a hand under his knees, and Emmett adjusted the covers to drape over him. Kage let his eyes shutter with a sigh as his exhausted frame sank into the mattress.

Feeling a hand rest gently on his shoulder, Kage opened his eyes to smile up at the metahuman standing over him. “Thank you for coming.”

Stryker returned the smile, brown eyes soft. “Thanks for calling me.” The electrokinetic shifted his hand to rest over Kage’s heart, his smile fading to a more thoughtful expression as his attention returned to the doctor’s pulse. The rhythm tracking behind his eyes remained comfortingly steady. “I was hoping I’d be able to repay you. I just didn’t think it’d be this soon.”

Kage couldn’t help a weak chuckle in agreement.

“I can leave one of our medics with you if that would help.” Stryker offered, observing the doctor’s meager resources.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. I can keep an eye on myself well enough, and I do have help here.” Kage nodded to Emmett, who offered a bright smile in return. “Thank you, though.”

“’Course.” The metahuman paused in turning from Kage’s side, glancing back to him. “I guess I’ll give you the same parting words you gave me: just call if you need anything. You have my right hand’s number.”

Kage nodded. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too.” With that, Stryker stepped out of the room, quietly pulling the door shut behind him.

As he stepped into the hall, Kylie already stood there waiting, having stepped out while the pair conversed. “Keep an eye on him, yeah?” he murmured to her. “This could’ve gone really badly, and probably still could.”

Kylie nodded. “Of course. Thank you again.”

Stryker smiled. “It’s no problem. I’m just glad I was in time.”

Glancing back toward the closed door and toward where Stryker’s companions waited in the living room, Kylie looked up to him through her eyelashes, smiling shyly. "How are you doing? I... couldn't help but overhear."

"It's alright,” he assured her. “I'm feeling much better—thanks for asking."

He turned to rejoin Anva and Fenris but paused as Kylie caught his hand, glancing back to her curiously.

“You’re a very kind person, Stryker.”

He averted his eyes with a bashful smile at the compliment. “Thanks. I try to be.”

Kylie smiled. “You don’t have to try very hard.”

He chuckled slightly. “I guess not.”

Kylie accompanied him back to the living room to let the trio back out the front door, watching them for a moment as they disappeared into the woodlands surrounding Kage’s home before closing and barring the door again.

Soft footsteps carried her back to peek into Kage’s bedroom again. Emmett had transferred the chair set against one wall to Kage’s bedside and remained seated there, patiently watching the young doctor as he seemed to have already sunken into sleep. Smiling to herself, Kylie gently drew the door shut again.


	3. Observation (Emmett and Kage)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmett checks on Kage in the aftermath of Stryker's intervention.

Kage’s home had remained thankfully quiet and undisturbed since Stryker and his allies had left. Still seated at Kage’s side as he had been for some time, Emmett lifted his attention from his book to scan his sleeping friend again. Kage hadn’t shifted posture much since the four of them had put him to bed, his features relaxed and expression peaceful with one hand resting on the folds of the comforter tucked around his waist. Emmett watched his chest rise and fall under his shirt in a slow cycle of breath.

Setting aside the book, the young skicherman scooted his chair closer, reaching out to retrieve the stethoscope from the bedside table. After the horrid scare the young doctor had put them all through, he wasn’t quite satisfied with Kage just _appearing_ to be okay.

Clipping the arms of the stethoscope around his neck, he clasped the chestpiece in his palm to warm it as he gently tugged Kage’s shirt out from under his hand and drew it upward to his collar. Fitting the instrument into his ears, he pressed the diaphragm to Kage’s bared chest, just below his collarbone. He progressed steadily down Kage’s chest in the sequence that the doctor had taught him in the early days of his apprenticeship, following the lines of his ribcage under his pale skin as the rhythmic thumping of his heart echoed in the skicherman’s sensitive ears. The young mutant released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as Kage’s heartbeat remained steady and clear.

Noting a slight increase to his heart rhythm and a rush of breath into his lungs, Emmett glanced up to find Kage watching him, blue eyes soft as a gentle smile turned up the corners of his mouth.

“How does it sound?” Kage asked as Emmett straightened and dropped the stethoscope’s arms to his neck.

“Great. Really great. Your heart sounds pretty much back to normal.” Emmett returned the instrument to the side table and clasped Kage’s hand in his. “How are you feeling?”

Kage released a breath, his eyes flickering closed for a moment as he let his head sink back into the pillow. “Still a bit tired, but I’m not in pain anymore.”

Lifting his hand from Emmett’s grasp, Kage laid it over the hand lying on his stomach. Emmett watched as he turned both hands to lay a finger on his radial pulse, eyes opening again to track along the ceiling and lips moving soundlessly as he mentally counted his heart rate, then nodded to himself and relaxed his arms.

The skicherman laid a hand on Kage’s arm, drawing the young man’s attention back to his assistant. Emmett gave him a soft smile when their eyes met. “Just rest, Kage. No one needs you right now, and we’ve all been very worried for you.”

Kage nodded and smiled in return, settling back into bed and closing his eyes. “I’ll need you to fill in for me, of course. I’ll rejoin you when I’m feeling more like myself.”

“I can do that.”

Emmett quietly watched him until his form stilled and his breathing deepened, signaling a return to slumber, before rising quietly and leaving the room.


End file.
